By Sally Siko
One of my favorite early spring arrivals is the Yellow-throated Warbler. With that bold yellow, black and white plumage, they’re absolutely captivating to photograph.
I found this handsome fella this morning while birding along the Neuse River Trail Capital Area Greenway in Raleigh.
Happily he was hopping and flying at a lower level of the tree canopy so that I could get a good view.
Normally they tend to hang out much higher in the trees so it was neat to get a close up look at him!
This species of wood warbler are one of a handful which nests exclusively in the eastern part of the United States with a range that stretches from Missouri in Pennsylvania all the way down to Florida and into the Gulf of Mexico.
Their open cup-nests are constructed almost entirely by the female from bark strips, grasses, and weed stems, and lined with plant down and feathers. The nest is usually placed in the canopy of a pine, cypress or sycamore tree on the end of a a horizontal branch well out from the trunk at heights ranging from 15 to 60 feet above the ground.
Happily these gorgeous birds will spend the summer raising their families here in the Tarheel state. They will stick around until late September (or even into early October in our eastern counties) so there is still plenty of time for us to enjoy them this year.
Btw, if you’d like to see a Yellow-throated Warbler too (along with many other beautiful birds!) I invite you to check out the link below to view all of my upcoming group birding tours.
I’m leading trips to destinations ranging from South Carolina to Maine.
Join me in discovering why there’s a lot to love about the East Coast of the United States when it comes to bird watching.
See ya out there!
Photos by @sally_siko of @bestlife_birding on my mighty mirrorless monster, the @canonusa #R5
